Loot Stage

Every container roll checks your loot stage against the loot tables. A higher loot stage unlocks better item tiers, higher quality rolls and rarer drops from the same container. You can see your current value on the character screen, and the loot finder shows the real drop chances behind each container.

Loot stage starts from your gamestage. The formula in gamestages.xml is:

gamestage = (playerLevel + daysSurvived) x 1.2

• daysSurvived goes up by 1 every 24 in-game hours.
• Every death subtracts 2 from daysSurvived.
• daysSurvived can never exceed your player level, and never drops below 0.

So a level 60 character who has survived 40 days sits at gamestage (60 + 40) x 1.2 = 120. Level up and stay alive and the number climbs; die repeatedly and it stalls.

Each biome multiplies your loot stage while you are inside it. Harder biomes also raise the gamestage used for zombie spawns, so the better loot comes with meaner company. These are the exact modifiers in the game files:

The same gamestage 120 character loots at stage 120 in the pine forest, 180 in the burnt forest, 240 in the desert, 300 in the snow and 360 in the wasteland. Full biome details, hazards and spawn lists are on the biome explorer.

When players loot or fight together, the game builds a party gamestage: everyone's gamestage is sorted highest first, the top value counts fully, and each further player counts half as much as the one before (100%, 50%, 25%, and so on), then the total is rounded down. A strong player carries the party's loot stage up, but a full squad of fresh spawns will not drag a veteran's down by much.

• Level up: player level is the biggest lever, and it also raises the daysSurvived cap.
• Stop dying: each death is minus 2 days, which is minus 2.4 gamestage, and repeated deaths stack.
• Loot in harder biomes: the wasteland triples your effective loot stage compared to the forest.
• Gamestage also drives blood moon horde composition, so expect the sharper hordes to come with the sharper loot.